Fallout Equestria Omega's Trials

Omega’s Trials
Chapter 5

“What do you mean you’re kicking me off?” I asked the doctor stupefied, it took a bit longer than it should’ve with the search but we pulled into the Switch Yard without further incident. “You’re the one who told me to stay off my legs for three days?!”

“Yeah but you don’t have the caps for two more days of lying in bed.” He answered blankly. “Or the braces.”

“How much do I need to rent the braces?” I pleaded.

“Kid, you don’t rent in the wasteland, it doesn’t come back.” He replied exasperatedly

“When does your train come back through?” I tried to reason with him, he’s a doctor he has to help ponies in trouble.

“Two weeks.” He set the clipboard down.

“What’s your next stop?” I grinned ear to ear thinking I might’ve made some headway.

“The Hub.” His horn started to glow. “Bye.”

“But what if I ju-“ I was interrupted by a sudden teleportation, there was a bright flash and I was outside the train smelling like burnt mane, with my bandaged legs, newly painted pipbuck, and no braces. “st, fuck.”

“Wow that train was running late.” Tick-Tock was standing behind me checking the time on his watch. “How ya feeling.”

“Alive, but we need to get me in a bed or at least some braces, before I undo the work that the doctor did.” I glared at the rapidly emptying train; any hope of having angry words with Tanglebones was shattered by the heavily armed guards at every entrance. “Shit my stuff’s still in the locker.” There was a flash and my gear fell on top of me. It wasn’t a lot of weight but with the state my legs were in I collapsed.

“Hey, need some help?” Tick-Tock asked half sarcastically, I looked up and there was a calm sympathetic smile on his face. As he took the stuff off my back and put it in his pack. “Already have a hotel room for you.”

“So you didn’t have enough money for your own train ride, but,” I grunted as I tried to stand up and almost fell, Tick-Tock just barely catching me. “you have enough for a hotel room.”

“Convincing Tanglebones to pick you up, decorate you, and operate on you was all the money I had on hoof, figured you wouldn’t be in the best shape so I sold some stuff to take care of your room.”

“Like what?” I grunted taking slow steps with him steadying me; this was starting to feel a little awkward.

“Some guns and armor I scavenged, kept the sledge hammer, and the assault rifle, noticed you eyeing them.” He looked upwards.

“So where will you be staying?” I was really hoping he had another room; don’t get me wrong it would just be awkward.

“I’ve made arrangements to busy myself.” He smiled calmly. Then I remembered I wanted to kill him so I bit him hard, and stomped on his hooves harder, he looked at me confused and then…started…laughing.

“I guess I deserved that…was that for getting you shot, running off when they showed up to face their leader, or something I have forgotten.” DOES NOTHING MAKE HIM ANGRY?!

“FM, I haven’t begun getting you for the rest.” I growled.

“OH! You mean that kind mare from your stable, yes we had a brief discussion regarding your health at the time, don’t worry, I let her know you were going to be alright and to contact you again.” He looked skyward once more but with a stoic look on his face instead of calm smile. “I think I told her in a few days so yeah tonight…maybe.”

“SHE MAY THINK I’M FUCKING DEAD!” I shouted directly in his ear. He moved then winced shaking his head and rubbing his ears, then I realized how unbalanced I was and promptly fell on my ass in a puddle of mud.

“Didn’t think about that, but I have a feeling that she hopes you aren’t, so expect a call again, early, if not to just check to be sure.” He braced me as I fell trying to get up. “Besides, what was I supposed to tell her, ‘sorry miss you have broadcasted to the wrong pipbuck please check your frequency and dial again?’”

“What, did you say to her, exactly?” I started to feel queasy my adrenaline pumped.

“That as you blacked out you called for her.” He answered calmly.

“WHAT?!” I screamed trying to reach for my 9 mm sticking out of the pack on Tick-Tock’s pack. He just looked confused. “HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT?!”

“Well it was either that or I could have told her the truth.” He said stoically.

“Which Was?” If I could’ve reached my gun I would’ve shot him, a lot.

“You called for your mother and you soiled yourself.” I was beginning to doubt he was my friend.

“Seriously?” I had stopped reaching for my gun and was leaning on him with my jaw hanging half-way open.

“Serious about what?” He smiled looking to the down the street. I just realized we had only just left the train station; this was going to be a long day. “By the way, if you are supposed to be lying low, it’s a bad idea to shout angrily in the middle of a train station.” I glanced around, and ponies were staring at us. Armed ponies.

In the brief history lesson Tick-Tock gave me he said that the town had been founded in the rush to enter the Hub some fifty years ago when the colossal tower unlocked. It started as a small last stop on the route to the Hub for spelunkers looking to hit it rich. Some had settled down after hitting it rich or after failing, the town grew and thrived off spelunkers, farming communities came about out of the need to keep the spelunkers fed as they passed through; it had since grown to feed the rest of the town. And the town was still growing.
Ponies crowded the streets as they shopped for food, weapons, armor, and what I could tell were luxury items. There was haggling, and idle conversations it would be a tranquil site if it weren’t for the dark overcast and the Angelo’ Death sales, I found those unsettling, and the ponies buying the weapons more so. The settlement itself was built on out of old train cars, tents, and some buildings that have withstood the test of time.
Tick-Tock rushed me to the hotel he had talked about and took me up to my room. He helped me get into the bed doing everything but tucking me in and giving me bedtime story. Then he handed me some magazines.
“Well, I got to head out. You probably won’t see me until morning.” Tick-Tock headed towards the door. “Med-X is by the bed if you need it, Tanglebones spell should be wearing off in a few hours.”
“Hey, Tick-Tock.” I called after him he paused in the doorway and glanced back. “Are we friends?”
“Well I guess we could be.” He said pausing as if to consider the meaning of the word. “Friendships are built through shared hardships, and we’ve shared a few.”
“So, we’re friends?” I looked at him expectantly not sure if I was being creepy.
“Yes, I’m going to go and see if I can find you some braces.” He walked out the door.
It took me most of the day to read the magazines, locksmith’s reader, griffin judo, and one I was particularly interested in, Medical Monthly and it had already become night by the time he came back with the braces promptly apologized saying he was detained and then apologized again before leaving. After he left I snapped on my braces figured I’d try to get some exercise in before bed. I stumbled around the room but didn’t fall and spent the next hour relearning how to walk. Then I crawled into bed, and the high pitched bird cries started.
It happened every twenty minutes, on the dot, at loud screech that echoed through the whole town. Twenty minutes just long enough for me to get a good doze going then be startled awake. I could hear the little foals cry and ponies shout for it to shut up. The horrible, horrible noise ignored them and kept coming. Every. Twenty. Minutes.
I finally got fed up with trying to sleep and decided to take a look a short walk. When I opened my door I was blasted with even more noise from below I glanced over the railing to see what was causing it. Then found the bulk of Switch Yard partying downstairs, or at least trying to get drunk enough to sleep through this horrible noise. Every twenty minutes.
I nearly fell down the stairs a few times.
“Here let me help you.” A unicorn mare rushed up beside me and braced me.
“Thanks.” I answered as sincerely as possible with the amount of pain I was in, I refused to take the med-x it has more uses than a simple pain killer, and less dangerous. I looked over at the mare aiding me. Her mane was purple with gold highlights and it seemed to float there on its own, her coat was the same shade of grape juice purple as her mane, she was cute and not holding me at gun point I almost fell down the stairs again.
“Are you alright?” She asked raising an eyebrow as I tried to regain my composure.
“Yeah I’m fine.” I said acting calm and natural and not like I was scared of being mugged again. I was suddenly very glad to be disguised.
“Are you sure?” She said using her magic to take the weight off my hind legs, a favor I was very glad for. “If you don’t mind me asking, what happened to you?”
“Was scavenging an old plant, triggered a security system and got shot.” I smiled at her. “Probably nothing that’s never happened before.”
“Yeah, with all the factories and shit around this part of the wasteland it probably happens all the time.” She looked at my legs. “Looks like you had to have some surgery done too.”
“Yeah, damn Tanglebones cleaned me out.” I half-lied, he cleaned Tick-Tock out, speaking of which where is that pegasus. What did he have to do in the middle of the night?
“Well, I’ve heard he does good work.” She slowly let the weight return to my legs at the bottom of the stairs. I sat at a table and took in the environment, ponies playing cards, drinking, have a good time, except for about thirty seconds out of every twenty minutes when they all covered their ears.
“So where are you heading?” I asked her taking a sip of my Crystal Cola. I needed to remind Tick-Tock to buy me a cold one.
“Hopefully, Sanctuary.” She scowled.
“You sound less then sure about that?”
“Well, with news of Angelo’ Death being broadcasted over the radio things have started to get out of hoof, every station is talking about him, well almost every station is, and we aren’t even getting the Raider Reports.” She sighed when I gave her a baffled look. “To top it all off the Angel Slayers are being bought off by the Triumvirate to hunt him down.” She rolled her eyes when I still didn’t get it. “They are the only ones who keep order in the Hub, if they are all gone...”
“The Hub gets drug to the shitter.” I finished.
“Yep.” She sat me down at the table. She mumbled something about using a deck of 52 under her breath.
A piss yellow stallion with a dandelion cutie mark stood up on the table across the room. “3…2…1!” And just as he hit one there was another screech.
“What in the name of the Princesses is that noise?” I laid my exhausted head on the table.
“Griffins are in town.” She levitated over some lemonade from the bar while nopony was looking.
“So what’s that have to do with that noise?”
“What happens when two ponies get together and they have a physical attraction?” She arched an eyebrow at me.
“Are you coming on to me, cause I’m-“ I felt the butt of a gun hit me upside the head. That seemed to get the neurons going firing in my brain, and it clicked. “Damn that bird has stamina.”
“That he surly does.” She took a sip of her lemonade and put her gun back in her bag.
Five minutes later she was drunk. Not just a little drunk, she was absolutely plastered. Her speech was a slurry mess, she couldn’t keep topics or sentences together, and she could barely walk. This after only one hard lemonade.
“Ya know, you look perety familiar.” She yelled over the roar of the tavern putting a hoof on my shoulder and squinting her eyes.
“Wouldn’t know why?” I lied confidently. “I’ve never met you before.”
“Ahr you shyur?” She looked at me getting uncomfortably close.
“Yeah I’m sure.” I looked away as she got closer and stared at me through dilated eyes. She was pushed both hooves into me and knocked me over.
“Oops ahm sorry.” She laughed, stumbling off me barely missing my rear legs, which hurt like hell from the fall.
“Crystal Bullet what are you doing to that pony?” A shrill voice yelled from the door. I looked over and through the crowd I saw a small silver coated copper maned unicorn buck scampering through the drunken crowd. He pushed and shoved his way through the stumbling ponies with no difficulty getting to our table quickly and steadying his sister. “Why are you drunk?”
“Ahm not-“ she stumbled to the side. “Ahm not drunk, I just had one!”
“And that’s all it takes!” He yelled trying to keep her steady with his magic. “Such a light weight.”
“I am not a…lightweight!” She fell on the ground and struggled to get back up.
“Sweet Celestia, what are we going to do?” He whined pushing his sister out the door. “And I need the baby sitter.”

I finally managed to get up and struggled up the stairs. I was exhausted, my head was pounding, I hadn’t slept in what was probably days. My mind was a mess of deciding my long term plans, finding my father, beating him to a pulp, and the most important how was I going to get away with it? I pondered these questions as I lie in the dirty bed trying to sleep but still…every…twenty…minutes.

I skimmed the magazines but saw nothing that sparked my sleep deprived brain’s interest and gave up when I discovered I had reread the same sentence three times. Frustrated I through the magazine against the wall but missed and it hit my saddlebags knocking them over. The top fell open and out fell the recollector and the memory orb from the factory. It looked tempting, I knew a little about memory orbs they were mostly a unicorn thing, you lived that ponies memory, felt everything they felt, saw the world from their perspective.

I put the crown on my head and popped the memory orb into place, then concentrated. The world melted away and with a flash I was in a new body. The scent of oil and apples filled my nostrils as I stared into the face of a pony’s reflection in his computer monitor. I tried to move, blink, breathe, anything but to no avail. My mind raced trying to find a way to stop this as the pony started to talk.

“If you are watching this, then chances are, I’m dead.” I felt my lips move as he spoke. “I just wanted to let you know, that none of us wanted this and we did everything in our power to prevent the war the bombs from falling.” I felt my heart back up into my throat and struggled to hold back tears.

“Nopony wanted to commit mass genocide, even with all the propaganda that Rarity shoved down our throats I still believe there’s good ponies out there that will do everything in their power to save others, maybe, aw fuck, maybe you can learn from our mistakes and not let this happen again. As Fluttershy would say, be kind.” He started to cry into the reflection, the tears started to slowly fall down his cheeks onto the keyboard. “We tried so hard…”

“If you’re wondering if I have any regrets” he sobbed “It’s taking Apple Jack up on her damn offer to help her out, family first and all that shit, but if I could’ve spent my days doing something I would’ve preferred dyeing on my farm. I miss you, Big Mac, and wish I was as strong as you.” He I felt the gun go into his mouth, his tongue rap around the trigger, it was quick, I didn’t feel a thing as I died. I jumped up from the bed and threw the crown on the ground. Then broke down and cried myself to sleep, I didn’t care about the griffins orgasmic screams anymore.

“Rough night Scythe?” Tick-Tock groaned in the lobby he looked like hell and more focused than usual.

“Did you get sleep with that racket going on?” I grumbled back, straining to get down the stairs I mumbled. “Fucking griffins.”

“What did you say?” A thick gravelly voice said from behind me. I turned around and saw a white headed black bodied bird, well the front half was bird, the back half was a lion, wearing well-kept combat armor with two sawed-off shot-guns by his side. I stuttered as my mouth went dry and I fell down the three remaining stairs as he pressed closer staying in my face. I just noticed his wing blades looked similar to Tick-Tock’s only larger.

“I’m waiting for an answer.” His growl shuddered the room, and the other ponies saw fit to stand clear lest the end up with Omega bits in their manes. I heard the sound of Tick-Tock popping his neck.

“Jerry, leave the sleep deprived gimp alone.” I looked up and saw Tick-Tock step out of the doorway with a slight bow and in walked a petite snow white feathered griffin with gold feathers on her body. “I probably kept him up all night anyways.” She smiled seductively.

“Fine.” His hard gaze shifted from me to the griffin in the door, then finished with his beak in the air. “How much longer do we have to stay in this dump anyways?”

“What’s your hurry, have business with Red Eye?” She answered coyly.

“Fuck no.” He smiled. “I’m interested in the Angelo’ Death bounty, fifty thousand caps goes a long way towards retirement.”

Tick-Tock walked past the griffin that shot him a glare as he passed Tick-Tock responded with his familiar apathy towards insults, he made it to me and helped me with the difficult task of standing up.

“What the hell was that about?” I groaned and he gave me a hard look.

“You insulted him, what were you expecting?” He chuckled as I finally got to my feet, he stepped back and I wobbled to steady myself.

“Because of them I got a shitty night sleep.” I grumbled. “I don’t think I’ve slept in three days, I’m going to start hallucinating.”

“Don’t blame them, we all have our vices.” He was in a mellow mood, and his voice was almost a whisper. “I don’t think I’ve slept in that long either, besides you got to rest on the train.”

“Yeah but rest isn’t sleep.” I growled making my way towards the door. “Same with sedation, not going to help me at all.” That brought my mind back to the memory orb and how I felt that pony die, I shuddered.

“Well if you’re nice these griffins may very well help you.” Aside from the near whisper there was also a lilt to his voice as he explained. “They are escorting a caravan that’s heading to Sanctuary.”

“How is that helpful?” I whispered back, not sure why, I think it was contagious. “We are trying to get to the Hub.”

“And Sanctuary just so happens to be an excellent stopping point, on the way to the Hub.” Tick-Tock’s voice was becoming hurried as we walked out the door. “Well, at least for ponies who don’t have the caps for a train.”

“Why don’t we just head straight there?” I asked.

“It’s a week long trek through the wasteland to get to the Hub, and Sanctuary is on the way, so it makes sense to travel in numbers and make some caps.” He smiled at the last part.

“What do you mean by ‘make some caps’?”

“Welcome to the merc business Scythe.” He grabbed my hoof with both his and shook it vigorously. “That Griffinette that walked in and told Jerry off is your new boss.” My jaw hit the floor. I’m beginning to doubt his abilities to keep me alive.

We walked through the town as ponies set up shop and started trying to get our attention to purchase their wares, Tick-Tock silently walked in front of me shifting from one store owner to another looking for something. I was about to ask him but then he saw the booth and nearly drug me over there.
“Two cold Sparkle Colas.” He said to a pony that had just opened his small booth.

He gave the vendor some caps. The unicorn pulled out to empty bottles and two carrots from under the bench, waved his glowing horn over them and the carrots liquefied into the Crystal cola bottles. Tick-Tock took the bottles and tossed one to me. He smiled and quickly guzzled the beverage. I however chose to savor my soda and drank sipped the cold beverage and Tick-Tock was right they do taste better cold.

I felt more awake with every sip and my headache was fading as well. My body was still a bit sluggish; I just wrote that off to the braces. I followed Tick-Tock through the town as he window shopped from store to store occasionally asking to see something hanging up then putting it back, he was looking at knives and other bladed instruments. Then I by chance a mare moved over and I saw it, the most beautiful blade I had ever scene. It lay propped against the wall on the shelf of a tent, it matched it perfectly, the rounded inner blade, the handle that looked the perfect size for my mouth, piled amongst other farm equipment, sat in its glory a sickle, not just any sickle, My sickle. I practically floated over to it, looking at every single detail of this perfectly sculpted blade. Forget discussing things with my dad with a sledge hammer; I was going to make sure he didn’t fuck with any mare again with this baby.

“How much for the sickle?” A mare I hadn’t noticed until now asked. Eyeing just like I had been.

“75 caps.” The stallion asked looking up from his magazine. “Why are you interested?”

“It seems poetic justice,” She smiled “killing Angelo’ Death with his own cutie mark.” I froze. “Wander what the look on his face will be like when we hold him down and eviscerate the bastard then string him up by his entrails.” She had a sick grin on her face with the last words.

“If you’re goin’ after that fucker you can have it for free.” He placed the weapon on the counter. “Just be sure he aint’ goin anywhere when you do this, recommend cutting off his legs first.” I almost vomited.
I darted down the street as fast I could, and started running as fast as I could out of the town. I didn’t stop until I had reached a cliff on the other side of the town. I still wanted to keep running.
“Hey, are you okay?” I turned around and saw it was the mare from earlier, sickle sheathed on her barding. She was a unicorn with a yellow mane, red coat, and ruby red eyes, her face was soft and showed deep concern. She had a scar from her forehead just below her horn going diagonally down to the corner of her left lip. Her eyes seemed to glow in the filtered morning light. I looked at her through teary eyes. I almost collapsed when she ran up and hugged me. She stroked my new black mane and whispered in my ear that everything was going to be alright, that she was going to get that bastard and make him pay for what he did. This only made it worse, so much worse. She kept stroking my mane and hugging me, and then I noticed that she was crying too.
“I really hate to interrupt this tender moment between two ponies.” The gravelly voice of Jerry said as he looked down on us. “But Tick-Tock’s been looking for you, says it’s important.”
She gave me an encouraging smile; I returned it the best I could through teary eyes. Jerry grumbled and shook his head, mumbling about how he had shit to do and didn’t have time to be an errand boy.

Tick-Tock was waiting for me in my room at the hotel. He had three packages wrapped in brown paper stacked absurdly with the smallest on bottom and the largest balanced on top. On them leaned an assault rifle and my sledge hammer.
“Scythe, there you are you ran off on me in market.” He had his usual dumbass smile on his face, but it immediately melted to concern. “What happened, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Nothing, just Angelo’ stuff.” I hung my head low and tried no to cry. “And I really hate that name.”
“Sorry, I tried to come up with one that wasn’t painfully obvious yet close to home.” He took his hat off and scratched his mane.
“And what’s with this cutie mark?” I tried through gritted teeth to hold back the agitation in my voice. I hated it; it just wasn’t me this weird blue shape.
“Oh that, it’s your name’s meaning in griffin.” He tilted his head back and smiled.
“Tick-Tock, you said we were going to be traveling with griffins.” I tried to stay calm and but that sledge hammer just kept looking so tempting. “Won’t they make the connection?!” I imagined Jerry’s face when he talked about the bounty.
“Nope, I translated it through Fancee.” He rested his hoof on my shoulder. “Trust me; I know what I’m doing.”
“Okay, are you sure no one will make the connection?” My mouth was dry, and I checked over my shoulder to see if Jerry was pointing a gun at my head, it was clear thank you Luna.
“Not in the least bit.” He said in a confident tone. “But odds are they won’t, unless their brain runs the same way as mine.” No one’s brain can run the same way as yours!!
“And which way is that?” I was still recovering from the shock of how obvious I felt he made my cutie mark; it felt like there was a fucking bulls-eye on me.
“The most insane and illogical way possible.” He chuckled. “So the translation is rough and it can say about seven things, at worst the griffins who can read it are going to think you do something badass.”
“Okay, what does it mean?” I arched my eye brow and caught the package he tossed me the largest one and it skidded to my feet. I tore it open and inside was my armor, patched up, and painted blood red, with the 77 on the collar had been replaced with a pair of scythes that leaned in such a way to make them look like backwards 7’s.
“Its other translations add up to one common meaning.” He answered with cryptic tone. “The End.”
The door swung open and in walked the petite griffin from earlier this morning. She was wearing some nice looking combat armor, one revolver and a boxy looking pistol on each side, and had a look in her eyes that, I had a feeling if she really wanted too she could get me to change species preferences, something I found attractive and disturbing at the same time.
“We still leave tomorrow right?” Tick-Tock’s tone showed nothing but respect and not a hint of sarcasm. It was odd seeing him act so balanced.
“Yeah, 7 in the morning.” She answered than looked at me. She went from seductive to strict and military in absolutely no time. “Name’s Beatrice Broodwing. Omega, Tick-Tock is an old friend of mine, he said you have what it takes to go with us to Sanctuary, I however don’t, our contract is simple, guard the ponies on the caravan so that they can safely reach Sanctuary where we get paid, twenty ponies go with twenty ponies get there.” She got in my face and poked me in the chest with her talon. “IF I think for so much of a bloat sprites heart beat that you are endangering the group by being a stupid stable pony I will throw your stable pony flank in a mute zone and let the spell where off then tell EVERY bounty hunter where you are.” She snapped back to her normal or what I thought was normal but wasn’t sure anymore she just looked seductive. “Am I clear?”
I nodded my head yes in shock and she left the room but before closing the door tossed me two small cushiony things. I hung my head low and didn’t cry, there was nothing left to cry. It felt like my entire world was crashing down around me.

“Why did you tell her?” I kept my face pointed at the ground.
“She needed to know, I’ve known her my whole life, don’t worry, you can trust her.” He put his wing on my shoulder I pulled away.
“Yeah, and how do I know that she just won’t kill you, and then turn me in to whoever posted that bounty.” I was keeping my voice down.
“Because, I trust her.” He then looked at my disbelieving face in confusion. “Trust, it’s what friends do.”
“And I trusted you with keeping me safe!” His eyes widened in confusion when I raised my voice. “How could you do this, you could’ve at least told me you were going to do it!”
“Would you’ve tried to stop me?” He asked in the most annoyingly calm way.
“Yes! This is my life your gambling with on the trust of some griffon bit-“ He hit me upside the head with his wing, luckily the blades were sheathed so my scalp remained attached.
“Volume, you are a wanted pony, it’s the middle of the day, odds are somepony might hear you and make the right connection.” His entire body was tense, then relaxed and he folded his wing back under his coat, the whole time his voice hadn’t changed though. “If you have a problem, we can settle it in a civilized way.”
“Like what?” My braces squeaked as I stood up from the blow he gave me, I was up for civil in the wasteland.
“A duel.” Giddy with excitement he pulled out an ornate box.
I was about to ask him to explain, then he opened the box and pulled out two revolvers, and suddenly it was crystal clear.

(Level Up) Sparkle Cola Connoisseur-You're love of and knowledge of soda now pays off with giving you three additional seconds of health from it. yay!

I’d like to thank my friend Sara for editing and Kkat for creating Fallout Equestria.